The story of millions of years part 8


EARLY CRETACEOUS


Brazil…….110 million years ago

The killer crawled closer, slithered towards its prey, its long, sinuous back glistening in the filtered sunlight as steadily and silently it approached.

It was in no hurry to do the deed, it was a patient hunter, a slow executioner, and once it had a grip and had overcome its prey, it would not let go.

Leaves and branches and other assorted undergrowth conspired to obstruct it and steer it off its course, but with time on its side they could not get in its way.

It slithered on, the killer, drawn towards its prize, inching inexorably closer.

And neither would it be distracted by the two passing pterosaurs, giant creatures swooping low through the misty forest, cutting swiftly through the cool air.

The pterosaurs had places to go, the sea not a mile distant; where breakers smashed upon the base of boulder-strewn cliffs.

But they neither saw, nor cared about the killer, speeding as they were between the tree trunks, hungry for fish, engrossed in their myopic hunt.

Dawn had reached the cliff-top forests, a band of light travelling up the massive stone ramparts, before permeating the trees, spearing the shadows as the sun rose.

And with the dawn, light came back to the world, the solid darkness of another long night, lifted away.

Out at sea the pterosaurs were hunting, brilliant white needles stabbing the surface of the waves, and in the forest, the patient, silent killer had found its prey.

The beast struggled to move, struggled to free itself from the killer’s grasp, but it could not; its body twisting and turning to find salvation from the killer’s engulfing jaws, but its struggles only made things worse and soon it would be fully overcome.

All around it the straight, columnar trunks of giant conifers stood, silent witnesses to its fate, as impartial to the beetle’s demise as the resin that ate it, each massive tree harbouring killers of its own.

Yet the trees wept, it was all they could do.

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